In April, Italian luxury brand Gucci launched its creative hub called Gucci ArtLab. This eccentric building holds the brand’s futuristic pieces, industrial craftsmanship, and experimentation for leather goods and shoes.
Located near the historical headquarters of the Italian fashion house in Casellina, Italy just outside of Florence is a 37,000-square-metre hub of creativity, craftsmanship, and sustainable innovation. With 800 staffs working there, the ArtLab serves as the center for product development and lab testing with facilities for prototyping and sampling leather goods, new materials, metal hardware, and packaging.
This new vessel of creativity will further bring Gucci’s Creative Director Alessandro Michele’s bold vision to life; that is to develop the sought-after Gucci products of the future and help meeting the high demand for Gucci items. It is said that they have sold nearly doubled products in the last three years.
“[Gucci ArtLab] is a testament to our belief in creativity, artisanal craftsmanship, innovation and technology, and sustainability, and our bond with our territory,” Gucci’s CEO Marco Bizzarri said.
What’s unique about this building is its artistic architecture. The Gucci ArtLab is wrapped in large-scale paintings by Gucci collaborators, including illustrators and artists like Ignasi Monreal, Angelica Hicks, and Unskilled Worker. Inside this space, you’ll find pops of bright colors such as the flaming red staircase near the reception desk. The rooms inside the Lab also come furnished with Gucci Décor objects. The exterior of this building does not disappoint as it is covered in colorful elaborate murals that will surely grab people’s attention. The building has a sense of creative freedom that has been compared with Wes Anderson film’s mise-en-scene merged with eccentric family kitchen.
The ArtLab is the latest innovation introduced by the brand. So far, 2018 has been a productive year for the fashion house and its legacy in Florence. The opening of the Gucci Garden in January 2017 in Piazza Signoria, Michele’s decision to hold the show in Paris Fashion Week for the first time, as well as Gucci’s historical headquarters in Casellina have turned our heads and reassured that the brand is aiming to bring greater influence the fashion industry.
PHOTOS Courtesy of Gucci
